Welcome to another blog from Bizvid Communications, a leading video producer in San Diego County. Today’s topic: conducting a great interview.
Bizvid was called upon to create an informational video for another company who is a leader in the print industry, San Diego’s L&L Companies. As part of the process we videotaped the ownership, including L&L President and CEO, Bill Anderson.
In this raw footage, you will hear BizVid’s Caz Taylor conducting the interview. The numbers that you see at the bottom of the screen are called time codes and they will help Bizvid identify the areas of the raw footage that we want to pull out and use for the finished product.
Some important elements in acquiring great on camera testimonials include giving simple directives to the interviewee.
During this type of interview, Bizvid prefers having the speaker look just off to the side, as though they are talking to another person, instead of talking right into the camera. This puts the subject more at ease and presents a softer, more inviting approach for the viewer.
No one has a more concise vision for a company than the leader of that organization, so it is wise to pose questions that allow that individual to clearly illustrate the company’s benefits and strategies.
You will notice that after questions are answered, the camera man, in this case, Bizvid’s Bill Gruber, often zooms to a different angle whether close up or further away so that when the final pieces are edited there is some variety in the visual to command further attention of the viewer.
Often, BizVid will forewarn their subjects of the kind of questions they will be asking. With L&L, we told them to expect a few lines of questioning: Tell us about what you do and your vision for the company? Speak about being an industry leader, and speak about your strategy in making clients happy.
If you have properly engaged your interviewee, made them comfortable, and pose your questions in a conversational way, you have set the stage for getting just the right replies, with just the right tone to command viewer attention and make your job easier.
When you can tap into a leader’s passion about what has made their company great, your interview and the entire video will be great as well.
We hope you have found our blog informative. Thanks for joining us.